SCA?

[Peripeteticus]

I came across the website by mistake, but found it an interesting pursuit so I decided to snoop around.

A lot of my interests center on philosophy, mythology and religion of Ancient Greece, primarily the Eleusinians and the Arcadians. I do a lot of research on my own, just putting clues together and following the mysteries. Sometimes I learn something new, sometimes I hit a dead end...but it's always an interesting pursuit...

I was hoping to be able to get to know a local group on my own before posting to the website. Since I know that societies like this differ from region to region in scope, style, substance, etc...depending on where you might be.

I belong to another re-creation/study group called the Society for Creative Anachronism--which studies the Middle Ages. I always thought they could pay more attention to the Greeks, which is why I was looking into the SVR...

So...are any of you in the SCA as well, are the two groups in any way similar or do I have it all wrong?


Peri

[Curio Agelastus]

Salve!

If I understand it correctly, the two organisations do have their similarities, although I'm not a member of the SCA. The SCA seems to be much larger than the SVR, but the SVR is probably more active in proportion to the number of members.

The SVR is more about online discussion, but there are some members who live close enough to each other to meet regularly. However, there is not as much emphasis on re-enacting as I think there is in the SCA.

The SVR is primarily about Roma, but there is the Collegium Graecum to discuss anything Greek! You do a lot of research on your own? That's great, the same applies to most of us. Eleusinians and Arcadians? Why them specifically? I've heard of Eleusis, but I know nothing about it - why has it grabbed your interest?

In interest,
Marcus Scribonius Curio Britannicus.

[Peripeteticus]

...sort of a reverse of Anthropromorphism...(which I can't figure out if it would be Anthrodemorphism or Mythropromorphism)...

I saw a documentary on Adam and Eve the other day, that suggested that the demons and angels of what might have been their tribal culture were actually decorated and/or costumed people pretending to be avatars of gods or people held in god-like regard because of their spiritual power, influence, wealth, generosity, etc. etc. etc...

So one day I started applying that same logic to Greek myths...and saying, what if the gods that the Greeks and Romans wrote about weren't really gods at all, but primitive people, decorated to accentuate certain features, and because of the figurative language of the gods came out as super human or half animal.

I started off with Arcadia because they say that a god actually lived there--which to me seemed unique when compared to other gods.

If you look, figuratively, at what a Satyr looks like--thick hair around the haunches, dark skin, full beard, horns....to me, it represents maybe braids in the hair, or a pony tail, a sufficient amount of body hair...

A great many of Pan's liasons were from Sicily--often described as nymphs.

It also seems to me that, if not from Sicily, maybe they came from South Africa or the Caribean or even closer to North America...a lot of the native dressings of different tribes were built to make them appear half or super-human.

We also see a lot of this with the Samurai.

I focus on Arcadia because it's where the Eleusinian mysteries seemed to start sending people in different directions.

Maybe the mystery was that these people who had god-like faith in mortals started to realize that they weren't immortals at all.

After the cult of Demeter took over, there was a lot of pre-occupation with the mysteries. But the followers of Pan/Dionysus seemed to fade away, or at least get lost in the shuffle.

So I thought about the last chapter of Pan's life. "The great Pan is dead..."

And then I thought about what they always say. "The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he doesn't exist..."

If this Pan...this mortal that thought he was the embodiment of what the rest of the world considered evil...foresaw the rise of the church and the condemnation of his kind...maybe he perpetuated the myth of his own demise in order to escape to Sicily...

If you put the myths into chronological order...you can actually follow Pan and his offspring from Arcadia, over to Sicily and up through Cambria...

It's an intriguing prospect for me...almost as if I'm tracking down a soul...

And if I can do so successfully with this one...maybe it can be done with others...


Peripeteticus

[Aldus Marius]

Bringing this back on-topic (at least, the stated topic)...

> So...are any of you in the SCA as well, are the two groups in any way similar or do I have it all wrong?

I'm not exactly in the SCA, but I've been following them around for almost a quarter-century. When I still dreamt of starting a Roman Something (before the OP, before the SVR), the idea was for something SCA-ish, but Classical. I even heard tell of a Society of Ancients (who turned out to be miniatures wargamers) and a Greco-Roman Days festival here in North Texas (which stopped running a few years before my arrival...Ratti!!). But that was okay; the SCA itself, in Riverside and Oakland, CA and in Dallas, has always been willing to accept me as a Roman. The rare protest that I was "not in period" was met by the definition of 'period'...which, once I got involved, seem to begin earlier and earlier in time, right back to the brink of Empire. Thus, I could make a strong case for Lucius Marius Fimbria as a Lone Holdout, or a soldier separated from his unit on the long march home from Britannia Province in AD 410. He/I was of course taken in by a medieval-level society, where naturally he had a lot to learn--but also a lot to teach!

Now that I'm here, I find the Societas not a bit like the Crowns-and-Tournaments side of the SCA; but then, we're not meant to be. We do, however, very strongly resemble the Arts-and-Sciences side of the house, those good folk dedicated to researching the period of their choice and sharing their discoveries with the rest of us.

That's not as dry as it sounds. One person's notion of 'research' may involve making a Roman mosaic, crafting a wicker-basket or turning leather into vellum or parchment in preparation for an illumination-fest. My own most 'authentic' experience, the one that puts me in closest touch with the ancestor-spirits, is on the twice-yearly Armilustrum when I sit on the porch and condition my Roman gear...just as a Legionary would in his barracks. I moisturize all leather items, unscratch and de-rust all metals, sand and polish woods, mend cloth, and--Okay, I cheat!!--mousse my horsehair crest.

Organizationally we're a lot simpler than the SCA, and I like it that way. Hopefully when we get their size membership, we will still be able to avoid the very nasty politicking that goes on in some of the larger Kingdoms. We aren't trying to do as much, though we would like to do it in several more places. And I don't think I miss their level of in-character intensity, the emphasis on titles and decorations, and a few other personality quirks.

A few things from the SCA that might be good things here would be member awards for achievement in the various Arts and Sciences we pursue here. A Herald-type person to check the authenticity and Latinity of newcomers' requested Roman names could be a Good Thing. (I've suggested it in the Senate.) And of course we do have our Praeceptores to play Welcome Wagon to the newbies, though hardly any newbies use them. So you see there has been a little bit of 'cultural exchange' between the two groups, simply because in any given living-history society you're bound to have a few SCAdians in the midst!

Hope this helps... >({|:-)

In amicitia et fide,

[Peripeteticus]

I just didn't want to track down a local SVR group, show up in my toga and find out it was a bunch of dried up old fuddy-duddies that spend the night reading books and playing Gladiator while they make sure to always order out from Little Caesars... =)

I'm one that finds strength in similarities...and there are a few between the SVR and the SCA, which so far as I'm concerned, is buildable.

There's a large Greco/Roman Following in my locality, so I've also been thinking about maybe setting up a household or a guild through the SCA...

Darkyard, one of the largest SCA households, has a Greco-Roman Motif...

Being more involved in A&S than in Combat, I'm always looking for ways to expand the interests--which I agree, get too little attention. But, it's the combatants that people notice the most. They're like a walking, talking, noisy billboard for Re-creative Research and/or Play (cuz we've got more kids getting involved in it too...).

But it's the responsibility of the A&Sers to show the newbies what else can be done after the Stick-jocks have put on their show.